McKinley Snow Obliterates Italian's Passport and Return Plane Ticket

The Anchorage Daily News reports Italian David Bergamin cached his passport, plane ticket, spare food, extra fuel and other gear at the Motorcycle Hill camp near 11,000 feet on McKinley and then lost them creating a minidisaster for him when April snows obliterated the cache.

Bergamin marked his cache with a wand that included an identifying label from the National Park Service. But Bergamin didn’t mark the cache well. Experienced Alaska mountaineers will usually sprinkle several wands around the perimeter and tape together a pair of wands to make an extra tall marker for the center.

Without a cache and a passport, Bergamin has been depending on the kindness of strangers for money and food while he waits for the Italian government to send him a new passport.